1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a security communication apparatus and a security communication method, more specifically, relating communication data in communication over a network in which communication security has been ensured.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, with communication over a network, a network-side system has assigned network resources, assigned routes, and so forth, in accordance with the quality and properties of communication requested by the user side. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-279221 discloses cooperation between a network resource management system and a global resource management system with network resources and so forth within a service provider being managed in accordance with bandwidth and resource securing time, and so forth, requested by a user application. Also, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-314587 discloses determining of a VPN (Virtual Private Network) path in accordance with QoS (Quality of Service) requested by the user.
However, in a case of communication apparatuses exchanging data based on a network connection at a security communication apparatus, the processing performed by the communication apparatuses and security communication apparatus may impede efficient communication in some cases. For example, the security communication apparatus may perform processing not necessary for an application used by a communication apparatus, or quality such a throughput demanded by the application may not be able to be attained depending on the processing performed by the security communication apparatus.
As a more specific example, in the event that a communication apparatus performs encryption of communication data at the application level when performing VPN communication via a security communication apparatus, the communication data may be encrypted redundantly with the VPN encryption performed by the security communication apparatus.
Also, as another example, performing buffering or packet compression at the security communication apparatus when using a real-time streaming application, problems such as delay may occur.
On the other hand, setting parameters used for network connection for each apparatus at the user side requires advanced knowledge and skills regarding networks, and further setting of the parameters is troublesome.